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Demography, family, and gender

Population characteristics strongly predict labor market success. One of the biggest economic changes has been the rise of women in the labor market. The upcoming demographic imbalances suggest substantial adjustment processes on labor markets around the globe. The articles in this subject area provide evidence relating the role of demography in social, cultural, and biological processes to their effects on worker well-being.

Boosting the efficiency of household production
could have large economic effects

The time household members in industrialized
countries spend on housework and shopping is substantial, amounting to about
half as much as is spent on paid employment. Women bear the brunt of this
burden, driven in part by the gender wage differential. Efforts to reduce
the gender wage gap and alter gendered norms of behavior should reduce the
gender bias in household production time and reduce inefficiency in home
production. Policymakers should also note the impact of tax policy on
housework time and its market substitutes, and consider ways to reduce the
distortions caused by sales and income taxes.

The labor market stabilized quickly after the
1998 Asian crisis, but rising inequality and demographic change are
challenges

South Korea has boasted one of the world's most
successful economies since the end of World War II. The South Korean labor
market has recovered quickly from the depths of the Asian crisis in 1998,
and has since remained surprisingly sound and stable. The unemployment rate
has remained relatively low, and average real earnings have steadily
increased. The South Korean labor market was resilient in the wake of the
global financial crisis. However, there are issues that require attention,
including high earnings inequality, an aging labor force, increasing
part-time jobs, and rising youth unemployment rates.

Better educated parents invest more time and
money in their children, who are more successful in the labor market

Governments invest a lot of money in education,
so it is important to understand the benefits of this spending. One
essential aspect is that education can potentially make people better
parents and thus improve the educational and employment outcomes of their
children. Interventions that encourage the educational attainment of
children from poorer families will reduce inequality in current and future
generations. In addition to purely formal education, much less expensive
interventions to improve parenting skills, such as parental involvement
programs in schools, may also improve child development.

Despite major efforts at equal pay legislation,
gender pay inequality still exists—how can this be put right?

Despite equal pay legislation dating back 50
years, American women still earn 18% less than their male counterparts. In
the UK, with its Equal Pay Act of 1970, and France, which legislated in
1972, the gap is 17% and 10% respectively, and in Australia it remains
around 14%. Interestingly, the gender pay gap is relatively small for the
young but increases as men and women grow older. Similarly, it is large when
comparing married men and women, but smaller for singles. Just what can
explain these wage patterns? And what can governments do to speed up wage
convergence to close the gender pay gap? Clearly, the gender pay gap
continues to be an important policy issue.

The number of prime-age males outside the labor
force is increasing worldwide, with worrying results

The global economy is full of progress
paradoxes. Improvements in technology, reducing poverty, and increasing life
expectancy coexist with persistent poverty in the poorest countries and
increasing inequality and unhappiness in many wealthy ones. A key driver of
the latter is the decline in the status and wages of low-skilled labor, with
an increasing percentage of prime-aged men (and to a lesser extent women)
simply dropping out of the labor force. The trend is starkest in the US,
though frustration in this same cohort is also prevalent in Europe, and it
is reflected in voting patterns in both contexts.

The hidden private costs of obesity: lower
earnings and a lower probability of employment

Rising obesity is a pressing global public health
problem responsible for rising health care costs and in some countries one
of the leading causes of preventable deaths. There is substantial evidence
that obese people are less likely to be employed and, when employed, earn
lower wages. There is some evidence that the lower earnings are a result of
discriminatory hiring and sorting into jobs with less customer contact.
Understanding whether obesity is associated with adverse labor market
outcomes and ascertaining the source of these outcomes are essential for
designing effective public policy.

Over the last 50 years women have been
increasing their participation in the labor market and in the crime
market

In recent decades, women's participation in the
labor market has increased considerably in most countries and is converging
toward the participation rate of men. Though on a lesser scale, a similar
movement toward gender convergence seems to be occurring in the criminal
world, though many more men than women still engage in criminal activity.
Technological progress and social norms have freed women from the home,
increasing their participation in both the labor and the crime market. With
crime no longer just men's business, it is important to investigate female
criminal behavior to determine whether the policy prescriptions to reduce
crime should differ for women.

Despite a plummeting working-age population,
Japan has sustained its labor force size because of surging employment among
women

As the third-largest economy in the world and
a precursor of global trends in population aging, Japan's recent experiences
provide important lessons regarding how demographic shifts affect the labor
market and individuals’ economic well-being. On the whole, the labor market
showed a remarkable stability during the financial crisis, despite decades
of economic stagnation and sluggish real wage growth. Rapid population
aging, however, has brought substantial changes to individuals in the labor
market, most notably women, by augmenting labor demand in the healthcare
services industry.

Studies from countries with laws against
discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation suggest that gay and
lesbian employees report more incidents of harassment and are more likely to
report experiencing unfair treatment in the labor market than are
heterosexual employees. Both gay men and lesbians tend to be less satisfied
with their jobs than their heterosexual counterparts. Gay men are found to
earn less than comparably skilled and experienced heterosexual men. For
lesbians, the patterns are ambiguous: in some countries they have been found
to earn less than their heterosexual counterparts, while in others they earn
the same or more.

Greater representation of women may better
represent women’s preferences but may not help economic performance

Women's representation on corporate boards,
political committees, and other decision-making teams is increasing, this is
in part because of legal mandates. Evidence on team dynamics and gender
differences in preferences (for example, risk-taking behavior, taste for
competition, prosocial behavior) shows how gender composition influences
group decision-making and subsequent performance. This works through
channels such as investment decisions, internal management, corporate
governance, and social responsibility.